Book 3, Chapter 23: “One Is Never Kind When One Is in Love”

⁠​​​‌​​​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​​​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​‌‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌‌​⁠The next day, in the hidden pavilion of the Via Alfieri, she found him preoccupied. She tried to distract him with ardent gayety, with the sweetness of pressing intimacy, with superb humility. But he remained sombre. He had all night meditated, labored over, and recognized his sadness. He had found reasons for suffering. His thought had brought together the hand that dropped a letter in the post-b